While gourmet cupcake bakeries are on the rise, there’s no need to
pay top dollar at a bakery for super cute and tasty birthday cupcakes
when you can make them for much cheaper on your own. Check out these 10
ways to dress up a plain cupcake for your child’s next birthday.

Flavored frosting with fruit makes an elegant cupcake decoration. Bake
up your favorite vanilla or yellow cupcake and then add a few
tablespoons of a fruit puree to the mix. Take the same fruit puree and
add a tablespoon full to your favorite buttercream recipe. Now take
some fresh fruit and top your frosted cupcake with it. This method
works well with raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, or blueberries.

Frost the cupcakes and then dip them in melted chocolate for a special treat. These
special treats are called hi-hats. Instead of making a normal
buttercream frosting, make a meringue type frosting. In a metal bowl
beat 1 ¾ C sugar, ¼ C water, 3 large egg whites, and ¼ t of cream of
tartar on high until it becomes frothy. Now place it over a pan of
simmering water and continue to beat on high speed until you get stiff
peaks. (They will hold their shape when you lift the beater.) This step
takes 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in 1 t of vanilla extract and then put
the meringue into a pastry bag and pipe the tops of the cupcakes. Now
melt a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 3 T. of shortening in the
microwave. Put the melted chocolate in a tall narrow container for
dipping. Next, dip the cupcakes into the chocolate as if they were
chocolate dipped ice cream cones and then allow them to cool.

Use a cookie as a cupcake topper. If your child
likes the combination of chocolate and peanut butter there’s a fun way
to make a cupcake for him that combines both of his loves. Make your
favorite chocolate cupcakes and allow them to cool. In the meantime,
make some buttercream frosting and add in ¼ C. of peanut butter. Frost
the cupcakes with the peanut butter frosting and top with a peanut
butter sandwich cookie.

Create small decorations out of fondant. Fondant
is made of shortening and sugar. It rolls out like dough and you can
buy it at most craft or baking stores. Using gel colors you can color
your fondant any color you’d like. Dust the counter with powdered sugar
and roll out the fondant so that it’s about ¼” thick. Using tiny
cookie cutters cut out shapes that will coordinate with the theme of
your party. You can lay the fondant on top of the frosted cupcake or
let the fondant dry and then stand the shape up in the frosting.

Give your cupcakes the airbrushed look. No need to
buy an expensive airbrush to get the airbrushed look. The same
coloring comes in an aerosol can now and can be used on cupcakes. Frost
your cupcakes like normal and allow the frosting to crust (dry to the
touch). Place the cupcakes on a newspaper covered surface. Using long
strokes spray the top of the frosted cupcake. Make sure to start and
stop off of the cupcake. If you’d like you can make them half and half
by blocking half of the cupcake with a piece of cardboard while you are
spraying.

Make S’mores cupcakes using a kitchen torch. Instead
of using frosting to frost your cupcake, use marshmallow cream. Have
some mini chocolate bars or broken pieces of chocolate ready to stick
into the marshmallow cream. Crush some graham crackers and keep them
beside you in a bowl. Take a kitchen torch and toast the marshmallow cream, sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs, and stick a piece of chocolate into the marshmallow.

Dress up cookie dough cupcakes with mini chips and mini cookies. To
make cookie dough cupcakes, take some store bought chocolate chip
cookie dough and roll it into 1 inch balls. Make your chocolate or
vanilla cupcake batter as usual, but before baking add the cold cookie
dough to the center of the cupcake. Make the cookie dough chunks big
enough so they are not fully submerged in batter. Bake the cupcakes
until a toothpick comes out clean. Frost with vanilla buttercream,
sprinkle with mini chocolate chips, and top with a mini chocolate chip
cookie.

Edible sugared flowers will add a touch of whimsy to your cupcakes. Edible
flowers are available at specialty grocery stores. Buy a mixture of
edible flowers and lay them out on some waxed paper. Beat up an egg
white and pour it into a shallow bowl. Pour some superfine sugar into
another shallow bowl. Take your flowers, one at a time, and dip them
first into the egg white and then into the sugar. Place the coated
flowers back on the waxed paper to dry. Frost your cupcakes like normal
and top right away with a sugared flower.

Add chocolate cut-out flowers for a springtime birthday. Melt
a cup of candy melts with 1 T of shortening. Spread it onto a piece of
waxed paper about 1/8” thick. Place onto the bottom side of a cookie
sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes. Once the
chocolate is set remove from the refrigerator. Take a small metal
cookie cutter in the shape of a flower and dip it into a small bowl of
hot water. Dry it off and quickly use the warm cookie cutter to cut out
flowers from the chocolate. Frost the cupcakes with green frosting and
apply the chocolate flowers to the cupcakes. Using a little frosting
you can apply M&M’s to the centers of the flowers. Do one flower or
a whole bouquet on each cupcake.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Excellent tips. Sophie, I enjoyed reading about how to turn something that might be average into exceptional. I like the peanut butter frosting.I intend to pour myself a tall glass of whole milk and enjoy a special cupcake using one of your techniques.